World No. 1 Jannik Sinner has withdrawn from the 2026 US Open because of a persistent right knee injury, ending his run of 26 consecutive Grand Slam appearances and reshaping the field for the season’s final major.
“I Still Need More Time to Recover”
Sinner announced the decision in a statement posted to social media on Friday, saying he and his team had returned to court in Monte Carlo over the past few days to test his fitness. “I still need more time to recover from my right knee issue,” he wrote, adding that New York holds a special place in his heart and that he had been looking forward to playing in front of the crowd at Flushing Meadows again.
The Italian has not played a competitive match since successfully defending his Wimbledon title in July, where he beat Alexander Zverev in the final for his fifth career Grand Slam singles trophy. He subsequently withdrew from the Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati, both traditional hard-court warm-ups for the US Open, as the knee issue persisted.
A First Since His Debut
This marks the first Grand Slam Sinner has missed since making his major debut at the 2019 US Open, a remarkable run of consistency for the 25 year old. He arrives at this withdrawal in the middle of a dominant season, having compiled a 44-3 record with six titles, including a sweep of the year’s first five ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome.
According to a statement from Sinner’s team, the injury does not require surgery. He will remain in Europe to continue rehabilitation with his medical and performance staff, with the goal of returning for the Asian hard-court swing in Beijing and Shanghai in October.
A Reshuffled Draw
Sinner’s absence pushes Alexander Zverev into the top seed position at Flushing Meadows, with Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Sinner in last year’s final, moving up to the No. 2 seed and Felix Auger-Aliassime taking the No. 3 spot. Spain’s Carlos Taberner has been added to the main draw in Sinner’s place. Notably, Alcaraz himself only announced his return to competition on Thursday after missing four months with a wrist injury, meaning this year’s tournament will be missing its top two players for large stretches of the buildup, and marks the third consecutive Grand Slam in which at least one of them has been sidelined.
Sinner’s ranking is not under immediate threat, as he holds more than a 5,000 point lead over his nearest rival in the PIF ATP Rankings. The US Open main draw begins August 30 and runs through September 13 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, with this year’s singles champions set to collect a record $5.5 million.
